Fehrnstrom said the president’s performance was “off key,” and showed inappropriate levity about an issue — the possible doubling of student loan interest rates — that deserved to be taken moreseriously.

“You won’t see the governor slow jam the news,” Fehrnstrom said, not discounting the possibility Romney could appear on more late-night talk shows or even “Saturday Night Live,” thanks to the ability of those shows to reach voters who normally don’t follow politics asclosely.

Obviously, Romney’s aides are trying to play up his uptight-but-reliable-dad persona (just look at his hair!), but referring to your candidate as uncool — even indirectly — seems like a dicey move. After all, everyone — even moderates — wants to hang with the cool guy, right? Luckily for Mitt, who was at least cool enough to use his iPad in church this morning, House Speaker John Boehner was on CNN’s State of the Union this morning toclarify.

In response to yet another question about about the Republican candidate’s trouble connecting with voters, Boehner called him “a very likable person” and, more importantly, tried to explain that he’s not the opposite of cool, either: “The American people do not want to vote for a loser. They don’t want to vote for someone who hasn’t been successful. I think Mitt Romney has a chance to show the American people that they, too, can succeed.” Because, you see, losers — by definition — do not winelections.

All this anti-cool rhetoric is certainly reminiscent of John McCain’s 2010 campaign, particularly Karl Rove’s “Celeb” ad, which asked Americans whether a guy who wore neat sunglasses and hung out with famous people was really the person they wanted to lead the country. (Basically.) But is Obama even that cool anymore? The man himself thinks maybe not. At a Friday night fund-raiser at the home of BET chairwoman and CEO Debra Lee, he told the crowd asmuch.

“Back in ‘08, I wasn’t as gray, and it was kind of cool being an Obama supporter. I’m just saying, now, we see the guy all the time, and he’s kind of dinged up.” Of course, it is entirely possible that there are more important things in politics — and, possibly, life — that being cool, and Obama knows that. As he went on to explain, “My commitment, my sense of determination is undiminished. My confidence in the American people is undiminished. My hunger, my desire to help every one of those folks out there that is trying hard to carve out a life for themselves and their families, that hunger isundiminished.”

#BREAKING: I’m told the entire @BPDAlerts Emergency Response Team has resigned from the team, a total of 57 officers, as a show of support for the officers who are suspended without pay after shoving Martin Gugino, 75. They are still employed, but no longer on ERT. @news4buffalo

In case you were wondering about the unmarked federal agents dotting Washington

Few sights from the nation’s protests in recent days have seemed more dystopian than the appearance of rows of heavily armed riot police around Washington, D.C., in drab military-style uniforms with no insignia, identifying emblems or names badges. Many of the apparently federal agents have refused to identify which agency they work for. “Tell us who you are, identify yourselves!” protesters demanded, as they stared down the helmeted, sunglass-wearing mostly white men outside the White House. Eagle-eyed protesters have identified some of them as belonging to Bureau of Prisons’ riot police units from Texas, but others remain a mystery.

The images of such heavily armed, military-style men in America’s capital are disconcerting, in part, because absent identifying signs of actual authority the rows of federal officers appear all-but indistinguishable from the open-carrying, white militia members cos-playing as survivalists who have gathered in other recent protests against pandemic stay-at-home orders. Some protesters have compared the anonymous armed officers to Russia’s “Little Green Men,” the soldiers-dressed-up-as-civilians who invaded and occupied western Ukraine. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi sent a letter to President Donald Trump Thursday demanding that federal officers identify themselves and their agency.

To understand the police forces ringing Trump and the White House it helps to understand the dense and not-entirely-sensical thicket of agencies that make up the nation’s civilian federal law enforcement. With little public attention, notice and amid historically lax oversight, those ranks have surged since 9/11—growing by roughly 2,500 officers annually every year since 2000. To put it another way: Every year since the 2001 terrorist attacks, the federal government has added to its policing ranks a force larger than the entire Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).